May 14, 2020

Weekly sketch night with my art society, the 'Bristol Savages', and the topic for the night was "life after lockdown. So we have normally 2 hours to produce a painting based on that topic without the use of any reference material (so no cheating looking up on the web). Owning to the current social distancing restrictions, this of course was a virtual meeting.

Apr 14, 2020

A corner cafe scene dominated by a large date palm tree above. I suggested the spreading fronds with a bit of liberal splattering in a radial pattern. Quite a simple background with the kiosk and car painted around by a fairly light value.

Feb 28, 2020

A possible candidate for a YouTube video where I loved the reflections in the scene and the glassy appearance of the surface of the water. This is a small sheltered, tidal lake in the middle of the main town/city on the island. Tricky having to deal with the background buildings - they are painted white but not 'white' in appearance.

Feb 12, 2020

Cathedral is on the left. Quite a few dry brush strokes on this one, made easier by using slightly rough paper and not too much water on the brush. You only get one shot at some of these key strokes down the left-hand side with the lines of perspective.

Feb 10, 2020

Now and again I do like experimenting with colour. Maybe I can get away with it on a sunny day scene such as this in Fuengirola Spain and a summer day. No, the colours weren't like that on the day, but it was a fun painting and I think I managed to get the values in there. Perhaps too many hard edges?

Jan 25, 2020

The plaza del Obispo in Malaga, right next to Malaga Cathedral. A striking yellowish building which as a colour always looks great against blue. Kept things fairly loose in the shadows on the left, where there's a row of shops with things for sale on displays on the street. Also a bit of simplification of the architectural details of the cathedral facade on the right.

Jan 15, 2020

As I have mentioned in a few postings before, I normally avoid lighting/sun coming from behind me. It makes for tricky shadows for figures and sometimes it's difficult to get a range of values. But here I think the dark area on the left, the angle of the roof replicated with the angle of the shadow on the street helped.

Dec 31, 2019

The Charco de San Gines, The 'puddle' is an internal tidal harbour in the main town/city of Arrecife. Quite tricky to get in the background - many detailed buildings and all mainly white or off white. When all the buildings are white it can be sometimes a challenge to get right. I kept it loose. I have created a video of a similar scene here which I may publish soon up on YouTube.

Dec 29, 2019

A marina scene with the backdrop of some low cliffs, near Murcia, Spain. Composition wise, I went with a wedge shape - the ridge of the cliff mirroring the reflections and narrower to the right. You have to be careful with reflections. Here they're darker than the objects above.